Mas-wrestler Dmitry Popov: Feeling double responsibility before world championship at home

Dmitry Popov, an athlete fr om the village of Syrdakh, Ust-Aldansky District, has already participated in the World Championships. In 2014 in Yakutsk, he won the gold medal. Four years later, Popov is going to fight once again on the World Championship arena in the capital of the republic.

“Four years have passed, and I am going to perform at the World Championship again in Yakutsk. There is a certain feeling of deja vu and I feel a double responsibility because I am going to perform in front of my own fans. An excellent team has been formed, at this moment each of them is the best in Russia, everyone has been carefully selected”, said Dmitry Popov.

The team under the leadership of the coach Nikolai Konstantinov has had intensive training. The national team is now living in the Triumph Sports Training Center, wh ere the athletes are provided with food, medical examination, and massage. The training process takes place in the Modun Sports Complex.

Dmitry Popov is being trained by Nikolai Konstantinov, the Chief Coach of the national team, also following the training plan of Petr Davydov, his mentor, an honored coach of Russia. The sparring partner of Dmitry is his close friend, Erchim Bappagai from Verkhnevilyuisky District, who is the absolute champion of the 2017 Manchaary Games.

“I am sure that this World Championship will be witnessed by many fans. Athletes from many countries are expected, the competition in each weight will be really tough. The arena will show who is ready, how much workout the athlete has gone through. I would like to thank Alexey Fedotov, the head of the home Ust-Aldansky District, Gennady Vasilyev, Chairman of the Mass-wrestling Federation of the republic, and Ivan Sleptsov, the Rector of the Yakut Agricultural Academy, for their support,” he concluded.